Time to back our under-fire police

Our political editor Jonathan Walker on the big issues that are hitting the news.

Our police are under attack. And leading the charge is their boss – Theresa May, the Home Secretary.

She shocked cops at the annual conference of the Police Federation, their trade union, by delivering a speech highlighting the police’s failings.

Ms May, tipped by some as a future Conservative leader, mentioned the cover-up by police trying to avoid the blame for the Hillsborough disaster, when 96 football fans died partly because of poor crowd management by the police.

She highlighted the death of Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper seller who died in London after he was hit and pushed to the ground by a police officer. An inquest found he had been unlawfully killed.

She mentioned Lord Leveson’s report into the media, which criticised the way police investigated phone hacking.

Ms May also highlighted claims that crime statistics could not be trusted, that police tried to smear the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence and that undercover cops took the identities of dead children when they infiltrated protest groups.

And, predictably perhaps, she raised the issue of “plebgate”, when the Police Federation launched what looked like a deliberate attempt to destroy the career of Birmingham MP Andrew Mitchell (Con Sutton Coldfield) as part of its campaign against cuts in police funding.

It’s tempting to think that Ms May was motivated partly by a desire for revenge. After all, Mr Mitchell is a fellow Conservative MP and his career was very nearly destroyed.

But her list of mistakes and unethical behaviour committed by police officers was pretty damning. We need a police force that is firmly on the side of the people it is supposed to protect.

And that includes all of us, from MPs and animal rights activists to people who just happen to find themselves caught up in tragic events.

Too often lately, it’s felt like the police have been looking after themselves first.

And the problems go beyond just “a few bad apples” - even though the overwhelming majority of coppers are still honest, hardworking and want to serve the public to the best of their abilities.

But police also need our support. And they need the Government to get behind them.

The number of police officers in the West Midlands region, which has four forces, is down by 2,063 since 2010 (comparing Home Office figures for March 2010 to September 2013, the most recent figures available).

That’s a lot of jobs lost, and it only includes police - not all the civilian posts that have been axed too, adding to the workload of the remaining officers.

It’s a result almost entirely of cuts in funding And it’s not over.

West Midlands Police warned last month that it will need to make yet more cuts.

There’s no doubt that the police services have already suffered their share fair share of cuts - and probably far more than their fair share.

Now that the economy is getting better, the Government needs to stop cutting police funding.

Yes, we want high standards in our police. But we have to be fair and make sure they have the people and resources needed to do the job.